codlasher

We had a ride-on planting machine. We preferred the 'Skrieffer' that cleared the debris in a 2' wide path and made the slots for the young trees to be put in. This was pulled by a 6 pot County tractor. A hole every 18". So planting on FC spec every other hole was used. In those days there was a big market for 'Rustic poles' so close planting was encouraged plus there was not such a call for beating up with the volumes going in, unlike today with 2.0 or 2.5 meter spacings! The main reason that the ride on was not used was the poor chap on the seat froze to death! The decision to continue manual 'heeling' was a mutual one. Does your machine have a heater? Just interested:biggrin: I use an air spade nowadays to make the ground soft, working up a hedge line with it doing figure 8's in the soil and also for putting in bigger 'standards'. This digs/floculates the soil 6" at a time and makes for beautiful and easy digging. It prefers damp soil so is perfect for the job. In my opinion there is an invention waiting to be made using air pressure technology and planting.... My poor old knees won't do more than 1/2 a days digging so I have to use alternative ideas. codlasher

I have a Buckingham Woodstation I'm thinking of selling. Reading your post tomw reminded me. PM me if you're interested..... codlasher.

Some of these contraptions are great. My friend and neighbour has the remains of a 'Farm 2000' in his yard. it must have been there, rusting away, for a decade at least. I was having a cuppa with him and his wife recently and the subject got round to this 2000 and its operating. Mr loved it for the facts mentioned by twistedhicap.....burned anything, including carcasses, in its day:001_rolleyes: It ran for twenty+ years. Mrs hated it with a vengeance as she was un able to do anything with it when Mr was away. Everything was too big, too heavy and took too much time. They are now well into their 70's now and have oil CH as it is at the flick of a switch. Me, I'm spending time and hard earned £'s on insulation now. When I'm too old to operate my machinery I will have a well insulated house which will require minimum heat input and have one room that is extra warm for winter time. I still haven't decided on which fuel to go for but it will be chip or pellet.....eventually. There's a lot of boilers out there but the KISS effect will eventually be the decider:thumbup: codlasher

Ha! That makes the saw AND winch redundant! codlasher

Like!:biggrin: codlasher

There's always that jangling nerves bell as you are waiting! We always talked each tree through no matter how many times and no matter how many times there is always the jangle of that feeling! codlasher

Sitting in the cab with a straight cable running up into the tree and watching. Engine running nicely on just above tick over, clutch in and waiting for the signal to go. Nervous. I never put a massive strain on the cable to start with. The reason was not to trap the cutters saw when the directional cut was being made. This rule applies particularly to stems with potential for rot inside. As long as the cable was straight was the rule. When the felling cut was being placed I had a very good idea of what was happening by how the cable was behaving. If the cable bellied I knew that all would be well and the need for big pulling power was low. If the cable went bar tight I paid much attention to the pre-arranged escape route and the signal from the cutter that he was clear and to work up the power on the winch. There was always a point of maximum pull to where the tree reached its tipping point. Maximum pull sometimes resulted in the whole tractor rear end rising up onto the fork stops, this meant that there was now all weight on the mechanism and it was doing what it had been designed to do, dig into the ground and pull with all its 10 ton capability. As the tree reached the tipping point the tractor slowly moved forward and the wheels again touched the ground, the tree then hit the ground. Job done...Phew:thumbup1: codlasher As a PS to this. Ten ton of pulling power will pull a bogged and fully loaded timber lorry from a bad loading bay (See Nick Channer's pic as an example)

My old boss had a long lasting sense of humour and always had a few 'unusuals' for us to plant. We hadn't a clue about this at the time but 40 years later I can smile. Occasionally Sequoia were popped into the bag of Hemlock/spruce. Wild Service were mixed in with the hardwoods along with Fern leaved Beech when we were doing the edges. Cherry being the border trees for colour and fruit. I have continued with this theme and hope this causes a smile when I'm long gone. As to the trees mentioned above. The majority are still standing and the Sequoia are still going upwards.........:biggrin: I mentioned this to the harvester driver just so they were not cut in a moment of in attention:thumbup1: codlasher PS to you fagus; My wifes long term ambition is to have a real rookery! There are quite a few farms near to us called 'Rookery Farm'. Nearly every village seems to have one! C

Treat what looks like a simple pull with a tractor with caution. If the tree is any bigger than 16" you will be surprised by the 'lift' created with pulling on the trunk with your cable/strop. Creating a big angle between the draw-bar and the attachment position on the tree itself will result in less grip the more you pull, often resulting on the rear wheels loosing grip much earlier than you would normally expect them to. Try to loose weight on the opposite side by sending the Climber up to drop those limbs if you can. I used to dig the forks of my old County/Cooks winch combination well in when doing this type of work as this occasionally dragged, particularly on wet ground. All the equipment was 25mm cable rated to over ten tons. A short cable strop about 2.0 long was used to wrap around the tree then the main cable was attached from the winch, either pulled up by the climber or run up using a ladder. Webbing is probably as good but must be rated for what you will be putting through it. The plus side to webbing is the weight and none those bl**dy whiskers that always appear in cable waiting to get you no matter how thick your gloves are ;-( codlasher

Yes, have a lovely festive time matey! codlasher

I've just read the article. I saw the original post too. I feel for him in a very difficult situation and hope things improve. codlasher

Untouched 1859 Victorian farmhouse. Open on all sides to the elements & 9" solid walls. We had a grant to insulate the roof-space so there's 300mm (a foot in old money) in there. Cat slide roof now has 75mm thick cellotex/ecotherm/kingspan foil sheeting, foamy glued to the underside & likewise all the upstairs walls. Super warm. Love the silver as it reflects all the daylight colours:001_rolleyes: 3610 Morso wood burner in the old dairy room with a hole cut into the ceiling above so the heat rises & providing the stairway door is open a 'heat circuit' operates. This hole has a grate over to stop the children falling through, likewise all the floors upstairs are covered with plywood as the woodworm have been active for many a year and we fell through on several occasions:thumbdown: Funny that the staircase has none at all, which is good. Tasteful concrete fire surround (Not!) in the living room housing a open Baxi type fire with back boiler for all our hot water needs. Works well and no issues with power failures as it is on a 'direct' gravity circuit £65.00 per year for the gas cooker (one 47kg propane bottle) and 15 odd tons of cordwood to heat for the five of us here at present. Nothing else! codlasher

One of my pet hates is high tensile wire. I always argue for quality galvanised instead and move up a size if possible I know for a fact that in 25 years time some poor fellow (if they even care to) is going to have to pick up the pieces of HT wire. Not a pleasant job, nasty sharp, rusty little lengths just waiting to spring into your hand/leg and thats not even thinking of the animals it's supposed to keep in...... Another thing to consider is the lifespan of the fence posts in relation to the wire used. Unless the posts are treated to BS 8417 with the WPA benchmark guaranteeing treatment fit for purpose you will be having post failure within four years....To me that is not acceptable. codlasher.

I agree with testcricket01. If the fellow hasn't the courtesy to ring you, particularly when he knows you are on site waiting and tell you that he is running late or to re schedule the meeting, he is a rude man. This attitude will probably be reflected in all dealings regarding what he sees simply as 'manual' work! AKA Harry Enfield's 'Considerably richer than you' character! Steer well clear would be my feeling too. Ask a busy person to do a job but treat him with respect too:biggrin: codlasher

Thank you for the pictures and comments:biggrin: codlasher

As the owner of an elderly Posch machine I can honestly say that there are no issues with build quality or back up. I even suggested one if these tilting machines to a friend recently but I have not heard if he has looked any further yet. If I did not have a processor myself to keep me in the firewood that keeps my house warm in cold weather and the water hot all year I would certainly be looking in that direction. Age also has a lot to do with this as well. I certainly don't want to be handling the end product more than necessary so the conveyor loading facility is important to me. At 30 this is not really an issue:001_tongue: At 50+ it certainly is:biggrin: If you get a lot of sticks and bendy bits of timber that are easily handled I think this is the way forward and seems to be a lot easier than messing with a chain saw. Chop and chuck into the pick-up/trailer, what could be simpler? I made a decision not to go down the route of oil or gas for heating and at present keep things as simple as possible. This has proved to be the right one for our lifestyle so far, although wood pellet becons in the future:thumbup: codlasher

Andy Collins. I agree totally with your last line; "(I feel discussing this in a correct and proper manner may help eventually move this forward, hopefully the right people in the right places may even come across such a discussion on this forum? Who knows? We can live in hope.)" I have taken a step back from the firing line to do a 'five year plan' for my family. By dong this I can almost see the wood for the trees. I do find it a very rare occurrence now days to find an Agent who is courageous enough to even mention the word 'disagree' with any authority, it is a mine-field out there and keeping ones head down, gathering the grants and doing everything 'by the book', is simply the easy thing to do. I think the days when country gentlemen/land owners got their hands dirty or knew their contractors by name is, sadly, long gone. The result is this layer of indifference that one has to comply with! Those who were the above seem to be either too old to argue any more or six foot under. Being the eternal optimist I do live in hope! Using the correct method and the best tools to do the finest job should NEVER be questioned, or be dismissed by inappropriate ruling, that is simply WRONG. Those who are advocating anything contrary to this should be questioning their position and supporting, not condemning, those doing the work. Codlasher

Lovely!

In answer to the Q about CAT scanners tracing plastic pipe. The answer is NO. If there was a wire trace it may have picked that up. On the other hand I did dig up a very thick 'phone cable buried less than 8'' down a while ago. I took pics similar to the OP, argued my case and won, ie, NO bill! Codlasher.

I went on a 'firewood/enhance your timber value' seminar at a Forestry Estate in the Cotswolds about seven years ago. We were shown various methods of sale, along with the usual 'processor' and bag/tipper method. One that stood out was the 'billet' method. This was one way in which to sell 4' lengths. There was a long stack of 4' billets with divisions. Each division was roughly a car boot load. You could drive in and self load, pay your money and process this yourself at home. You could buy any amount of divisions. You could also have them delivered but I didn't look further at this as I liked the simplicity of the collection method as in this way you weren't, as vendor, getting involved with all the handling that deliveries and issues that are then raised. From a vendors point of view this seemed like a good idea. Codlasher

When I was in training, too long ago to even think about, there wasn't even such a thing as a 'small saw' and us lads (two of us) certainly would never have been allowed near such a machine aged 15. We did all the snedding, behind the 'feller' with an axe and all cutting with a 'bushman' saw (bow saw). We also had horrible blunt hand saws to prune the young Beech & Oak. These worked, like all British saws, on the push method, so were heavy, not easy to use and clogged up very quickly. This is the main reason I am such a supporter of these lovely pieces, each carefully tailored for its specific job with a plethora of blades and tooth settings. What more does a person need to do finer work. I even have a selection in my 'carpentry box' for when I do wood-work! I would still argue that by the time the chain-saw operator had dressed, filled the saw and checked the teeth for utmost sharpness, started the thing and actually got to work, a hand saw operator will be at least four young trees ahead. I would think too he would stay ahead all day too, also not have arm and shoulder ache. There is still a place for the motor manual operator in the team, as I expressed earlier, with felling and larger branch cutting. By careful observation and teamwork the job could probably be enhanced and therefor speeded up, but keep the chain-saw away from pruning! Codlasher.

I regard early formative pruning as a very skilled pastime and in my opinion it should only ever be done with a hand-saw. Aren't we lucky now with the advent of such superb pruning saws, topped of course by Silky and their range. The worst thing you can do to a young tree is to attempt to prune it with a chain-saw. In my opinion this is butchery! You have to carefully cut where the coronet finishes and this will allow for a clean heal in the future. By undercutting the branches in this way the scar is then minimal. Using a chain-saw certainly does not speed up the process and this method does not make for clean cutting either. There is an argument to have a chain-saw nearby and available for the bigger branches but not as the main tool. Hand pruning is also the most pleasurable past-time as there is no noise, no environmental damage and you are working much closer to the young trees so can be really accurate with your actions. If looked at in this way who is going to make the better of the work? Whoever is advocating chain-saw use and the lack if skill needed in hand-pruning really should not be in charge of overseeing the attention of valuable young stock. My advice would be to go over this persons head to the woodland owner or agent, if there is such a person and strongly state your case. Good luck. codlasher

Some years ago my fathers partner acquired a briquette machine in a buy out along with a number of saw-milling machines. I was asked to help and dispatched to collect two 45 gallon drums of hydraulic fluid, from the local ag supplier, to fill up the reservoir. As an experiment it was set up to produce briquettes with the available sawdust taken straight from the pile that the cyclone extractor produced. The end product was normally a 3" x 8" briquette. The machine produced, what looked like a number of fine looking briquettes, but after every sixth or eighth stroke there was a rapid build up of heat in the form of steam which propelled the briquette being produced some 40' down the full length of the building and impacted on the sliding door at the end. The mouth of the machine being at roughly knee height! A bit like a small howitzer shell:001_rolleyes: As I said earlier 'available sawdust'. Now this was the big drawback, shame really, but after many impacts on the bottom door the decision was made that this machine was really only meant to produce briquettes from DRY sawdust such as came from a joinery shop. A sawmill and the wet, diesel impregnated sawdust that was being produced from the timber milling was unsuitable. The machine was sold on. As an end to this story, the briquettes were the type that suppliers dread As soon as they were put on a fire they expanded so much they almost put the fire out. As least the experimenting was done 'in house' so no upset customers. I suppose the moral would be that the best briquette is produced from a dry base! codlasher.

We all know oak for its weight and durability. Larch is a very durable softwood, I would always want it for shiplap boarding. Western red cedar is better and lighter though. This is the choice for shingles. Hazel suffers from wood-worm attack so beware. Ash floor boards move a lot, sycamore boards are lovely so are beech. When we supplied timber to an earlier form of TRADA, research found that best outside timber was 'treated' sycamore! Not a lot of people know that. Now don't take my word for this anymore as the 'treatment' today really only seems to be green food colouring! I have some sycamore garden furniture that was cut in the 1970's by Mr West at Saunderton Sawmill. This was 'treated' in the old liquid (arsenic et al) and is still sitting outside as I write.....That's how it was supposed to be:biggrin: agg221,I love to hear that you continue to 'educate' authority with your building project! codlasher

You could try these people; Instant Hedge | Specimen and Semi Mature Trees | Tree and Vegetation Clearance | Tree moving - Practicality Brown Ltd They have a good range of kit. codlasher